Coit Tower: Enhancing the Beauty of San Francisco for Nearly a Century

Coit Tower. San Francisco, CA.

Upon her death in 1929, philanthropist, Lillie Hitchcock Coit bequeathed a third of her fortune “to be expended in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of the city which I have always loved.” In a fitting tribute, the tower and a sculpture of 3 firemen were erected- alluding to Coit’s lifelong attachment to the San Francisco Fire Department. It’s also dedicated to the volunteer firemen who died in San Francisco’s five major fires. The chosen location was atop Telegraph Hill, in Pioneer Park- visible from most of the city. Noted San Franciscan architect, Arthur Brown Jr., designed a 210-foot high fluted, reinforced concrete tower in the Art Deco style. Construction was completed in 1933. Brown collaborated with structural engineers, Michael Pregnoff and Christopher H. Snyder. Reinforced concrete had gained in popularity as a building material in San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires. The design consists of 3 ‘nested’ concrete cylinders, the outer is 180 feet high and supports the viewing platform, the middle houses the stairway and the inner cylinder encases the elevator. The tower’s interior was chosen as California’s first Depression era Public Works Art Project and the first New Deal federal employment program for artists, most of whom were faculty and students of California School of Fine Arts (CSFA). The twenty-six local artists were commissioned to depict ‘aspects of life in California’ with industry in both the city and fields being an important theme. The murals cover 3,961 sq feet of space, mostly done in fresco. (A technique where mural painting is executed directly on freshly laid, still wet, plaster, resulting in the color becoming an integral part of the wall.) Most of the murals are in the American Social Realism Style. Coit Tower remains a prominent feature of the San Francisco skyline, offering expansive, 360-degree views of San Francisco Bay and five surrounding counties. It was designated a San Francisco Designated Landmark in 1984 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.